London/ SE. Did you renovate recently? Need help with budget estimate

[sellotape12]

If anyone has done an extension and refurbishment in London recently (2021-23), I would love your perspective. We’re trying to work out how much cash to put aside from the sale of our current house for renovations.

1930s semi totalling 133 m sq including loft. So.
upstairs needs

• new bathroom (approx 7.5m sq)
• new windows to the back
• re-plastering of bedroom walls x3 rooms
• New architraves x4 doors and skirting boards

downstairs needs
• knocking the kitchen & dining into one and adding 3.5 meter extension. We would most likely need to use an architect too. The extension would be about 17 m².
• assume adding modern glazing like sliding doors to the extension
• new kitchen, units and appliances.
• new flooring to the entire downstairs and ideally an underfloor heating system. So total downstairs area of 51 m²
• converting 2 existing cupboards into a downstairs loo

What should I be allowing for this? Assume mid to nice level, nothing ultra high end.

@gemloving I PM'd you

We did similar works to what you want OP in 2019 for about 150k, that included going high end for some things and very budget on others. We did use an architect which was worth it for us as we wanted something different to the usual.

I know this is before your timescale you asked about, but I thought worth saying as I think sadly you won't be able to do all that work on that budget now, from what everyone says about material and labour costs.

I actually will be wanting to do similar work on a similar budget now in my new place and have decided to focus on upstairs first, then possibly just knock through kitchen and dining room and add a downstairs loo, rather than doing a proper extension, as I don't think I can afford it now.

@TrudyProud we don’t have plans for a loft extension. Just a kitchen extension. It would also need a new upstairs bathroom. Just to clarify!

@TheYear2000 oh wow, thank you so much. I’m actually quite worried now. We simply cannot go over 150 K. I do want to point out that as I think my original post was confusing. We don’t have plans to do a loft extension – it already has a converted loft. I was just talking about the square footage.

I was really hoping that for £150,000 we would be able to do a small kitchen extension and all of its appliances, fit a downstairs loo into the old pantry, new flooring, skirting and new bathroom upstairs. If it’s really not doable for that budget we may even have to pull out of the house purchase. I will try and get a second opinion from a local builder. I totally get that its installation plus Brexit.

Thought I’d update on this as we got cost estimates back from 3 middle range architects in South London.

Ground floor extension to rear of a 1930’s semi, ground floor renovation (flooring, plastering, joinery), small bathroom renovation:

£245,000 worst case scenario if building materials continue to rise

£200,000 at current rates

this doesn’t include the kitchen units themselves. It does include everything else like architectural fees, surveyors, building control, builders, labour and mats and VAT

Eek…that is crazy OP - I take it you went ahead with the house purchase?

We are east London and had planned to do a loft conversion and side return (standard) but are just doing the loft and first floor and I’m not expecting to get much change from £150k. The kitchen was more of a priority but for various logistical reasons makes more sense to do the loft first and at least if we ever do the kitchen we will have more space to retreat to during the build.

That sounds sensible. If you’re in a Victorian terrace, the side return is quite a big job because of drainage and stuff. A few people down our street started on a side return and it’s taking them way longer than expected and one couple had to move out. It looks like a simple job, but it seems quite complicated sometimes. The retreat upstairs sounds like a good idea.

So we didn’t end up buying that house in the end, hence the delay in my posting. We got the architect cost. He said to include the refurbishment of an existing loft to the above would be more like £250-300 K! Anyway, we ended up pulling out of the purchase last year because of another reason. But now a house quite close by is for sale, so back to figuring it all out again.

As others have said, they always seem to go over budget so we realistically need to budget at least £200,000 if any extension is to be involved. Just having a moral quandary with ourselves whether it’s right to take on the extra debt age 38 or just stay in our current house for a lot longer/ for ever

@sellotape12 we are 37 so similar. Im not opposed to taking on more debt/extending the term as long as repayments are affordable as we will have the option of downsizing later on. My dilemma (which is also why we didn’t do the full project) is whether this is really our forever home or not - kids are 6 and 3 and there is a chance we might want to move for secondary.

Based on my research we’d probably get the cost of the loft back when we come to sell but bizarrely seems not to be the case with the side return. If I knew we were staying here I’d definitely do the lot…assuming we could afford the crazy prices which is a big if.

Yes @Sideofnoreturn that’s what Estate Agent seem to say. Bedrooms add bucks £. But the cost of the side return is such an outlay that you may not get that back. There again, daft things do happen. During the pandemic a three bed on our street without a side return sold for £1 million. The average price for a three bed on the street is probably 750 K. So you never know, some buyers will just stump up the cash.

And secondary school is something we’re thinking about too even if it’s 7 years away. That time will fly by. Side note, I try stay off instagram house renovation pages. So many people doing huge and fancy renovations with the same-y videos of them holding a coffee in a floaty dress and doing walkthroughs and I’m like “okay but HOW did you fund the renovation?!” nobody ever reveals that 😂

Next door neighbour recently got a quote/works done.

these are the minimums they told me about. Don’t think it includes “extras”.

loft conversion £120k, including dormer window.

ground floor extension, 200k.

then the rest of the house needs refurb, windows, electric etc.

funding- they sold their elderly parents house. Got the loft done, then parent couldn’t manage the stairs so is now in a care home. Rest of family found out the “adaptations” for the parent moving in didn’t involve the ground floor living they’d imagined, involved spending the entire house sale proceeds, and I am loving the drama 😂

If you’re paying 150k for a loft extension you should really get more quotes… that’s a big mark up on the work for a terraced house loft. And yes I’m in London.